Left to right, Ronan Carroll, Robbie Leavy, and Darren Clarke celebrate with the Joe Ward Cup after St. Mary's Ardee defeated Newtown Blues in the Louth SFC Final replay.
By John Harrington
When we spoke two days after St. Mary’s Ardee won their first Louth SFC title since 1995, Ronan Carroll admitted the enormity of the achievement was only starting to sink in now.
Having played on losing teams in the 2003, 2016, and 2020 finals, he’d begun to think this day would never come.
That makes the feeling of finally being a winner all the more satisfying, as surely does the fact he played a huge part in St. Mary’s dramatic replay victory over Newtown Blues.
His introduction at the start of the second-half was a real game-changer, with the four points he scored from play helping his team turn a one-point half-time deficit into a three-point victory.
Having toiled for so many years for St. Mary's with no championship silver to show for it, the sense of satisfaction at finally reaching the promised land was enormous.
“It was just unbelievable,” Carroll told GAA.ie. “When the final whistle went I had an immediate burst of energy and sprinted down the field. I was looking for my eldest fella, Conor, he's 11 and I knew he'd be on the field.
“I was keeping an eye out for him and eventually found him. He said hello to me for a minute before he went on to some of the other lads. Then I went looking for the rest of the family because that's what meant most to me.
“It was brilliant to share the moment with them.”
At half-time, Carroll didn’t go to the dressing-room with the rest of the team because he knew he’d be coming on for the second-half.
Ronan Carroll celebrates after scoring a goal for Louth against Westmeath in the 2012 Leinster Senior Football Championship.
Instead he jogged down to the goals he’d be playing into and practiced kicking points from a variety of angles. The practice clearly paid off.
“I knew I was going to be playing into those goals and it was about just kicking the ball and trying to get my bearings to make sure that if I had a chance coming on that I'd have a good feel for the ball and a good idea where the goals were,” he says.
“My thinking was that if I just got a chance I'd be able to make a little bit of a difference and get a few scores.
“Once I got the ball and I had half a yard I was taking a shot and it always feels good when your first shot goes over, it gives you a bit of confidence to go again. Sometimes when the first goes over the confidence just flows and you think every shot you go for will go over.
“I knew if we could get a little bit of momentum we could push on and really, really take control and that's what happened. Ten minutes into the second-half we just took control of the game for a good 10 minute period where we scored five or six points on the bounce.
“It just really felt like we were on top and we could find space and cut them open and we could get scores.
“Luckily enough I got a few more chances, some of them were easier than others, and they all went over and in the end of the day we got the result.”
Carroll’s fourth point of the day was his best. Catching a mark in the middle of the field he continued his run to convert the last score of the match and give Ardee a three-point buffer on the score-board.
But even after that, haunted by history, he couldn’t allow himself to think the game was won until the final whistle eventually blew.
“I played on that same pitch back in 2003 when it was also a county final replay. There was a lot a memories. Even during the game towards the end of it I was thinking, 'not again!'
“Because back in 2003 we were three or four points up and ended up drawing the first game after they got a last minute goal and there were all sorts of memories flooding back of that.
“I was just praying and hoping that we could hold them off, because the Blues kept coming at us and had chance after chance. I thought Andy McDonnell’s chance at the end, it was just a matter of millimetres.
“If he had gotten a little bit more over the ball the ball was in the back of the net, but it just went over. I think that would have drawn the match had he gotten that and you're talking extra-time and none of us would have wanted that.”
The Ardee St. Mary's players celebrate with the Joe Ward Cup.
St. Mary’s previously reached the Final in 2020 and have been very competitive in Louth for the past number of years.
Carroll believes that what finally turned them from contenders into champions was the coming of age of a generation of young players who had previously won it all at underage level.
“We've a lot of talented, young players who over the last couple of years have really matured,” he says.
“I think what really helped and benefited the team as well is that a lot of those guys have been in with Louth as well. They're training hard under Mickey Harte and you can see that their conditioning has improved. They're stronger, they're faster.
“They've obviously got a great attitude too, those guys. They came back in for the latter stages of the League and we pushed on. I don't think we lost a game since they all came back. When you have five county lads coming back into the team that's an unbelievable boost.
“The last match Louth played I think all five of them were on the pitch at the one time and it's great for the club to have so many lads representing the club on the county team. When they came back they just really, really stepped things up in training for us.
“Then, obviously, competition for places was very, very tight. I knew coming into the championship that realistically there were only two spots in the forward because the four county boys were just going to slot in and take those four spots.
“Everyone had to raise their game and some of the matches we had on the training field never mind in League or championship matches were really tough and everyone stepped up and I think it showed when we played in the championship this year.
“I think we had the belief this year that this was going to be our year. The older fellas like myself didn't want to let it go, but we also knew the younger lads had a lot of experience of winning finals right through from underage.
“They won minors and U-21s so they had that experience of winning finals and I think it helped create a bit more belief in the team.”
St. Mary’s don’t have too much time to enjoy the achievement of winning their first county title in 27 years because they’re back in action on Sunday in the first round of the AIB Leinster SFC against Longford champions Colmcille.
They have home advantage in Ardee, and Carroll hopes a big crowd will turn out and help the team make an already memorable year even more special.
“Hopefully we get a big crowd from our own parish and within Louth to come out and support us this weekend,” he says. “I think we have a little bit more in us and compete at a high level, but I suppose only time will tell.
“I don't know much about the Longford champions. I'm sure over the next day or two we'll have a look at what they're about, what they can bring to the field. I'm sure they watched our game on Sunday and will be looking to get the win the same way we are.
“We're in complete bonus territory now. We are only a couple of wins away from Croke Park which would be unbelievable, but we'll take it one game at a time and if we could win this weekend that would be great and we'll refocus again for the following game.
“We’ve won the county championship and now we're competing in Leinster. This is what every GAA player wants to do. You want to represent your local team, win trophies, and now represent your club at a provincial level. That's just unbelievable.”
